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5.

When Hercules heard that, he went to Tiryns
and did as he was bid by Eurystheus. First, Eurystheus ordered him to bring the skin of
the Nemean lion;1 now that was an invulnerable beast begotten by Typhon. On his way to attack
the lion he came to Cleonae and lodged at the house of a day-laborer, Molorchus;2
and when his host would have offered a victim in sacrifice, Hercules told him to wait for
thirty days, and then, if he had returned safe from the hunt, to sacrifice to Saviour
Zeus, but if he were dead, to sacrifice to him as to a hero.3 And having come to Nemea and tracked the lion, he first shot an arrow at
him, but when he perceived that the beast was invulnerable, he heaved up his club and made
after him. And when the lion took refuge in a cave with two mouths, Hercules built up the
one entrance and came in upon the beast through the other, and putting his arm round its
neck held it tight till he had choked it; so laying it on his shoulders he carried it to
Cleonae. And finding Molorchus on the last of the thirty days about to sacrifice the
victim to him as to a dead man, he sacrificed to Saviour Zeus and brought the lion to
Mycenae. Amazed at his manhood, Eurystheus
forbade him thenceforth to enter the city, but ordered him to exhibit the fruits of his
labours before the gates. They say, too, that in his fear he had a bronze jar made for
himself to hide in under the earth,4 and that he sent his commands for the labours through a herald,
Copreus,5
son of Pelops the Elean. This Copreus had killed Iphitus and fled to Mycenae, where he was purified by Eurystheus and took
up his abode.
[2]

As a second labour he ordered him to kill the Lernaean hydra.6 That creature, bred in the swamp of Lerna, used to go forth into the plain and ravage both the cattle and the country. Now the hydra had a huge body, with nine
heads, eight mortal, but the middle one immortal. So mounting a chariot driven by Iolaus,
he came to Lerna, and having halted his horses,
he discovered the hydra on a hill beside the springs of the Amymone, where was its den. By
pelting it with fiery shafts he forced it to come out, and in the act of doing so he
seized and held it fast. But the hydra wound itself about one of his feet and clung to
him. Nor could he effect anything by smashing its heads with his club, for as fast as one
head was smashed there grew up two. A huge crab also came to the help of the hydra by
biting his foot.7 So he killed it, and in his turn called for help on Iolaus who, by
setting fire to a piece of the neighboring wood and burning the roots of the heads with
the brands, prevented them from sprouting. Having thus got the better of the sprouting
heads, he chopped off the immortal head, and buried it, and put a heavy rock on it, beside
the road that leads through Lerna to Elaeus.
But the body of the hydra he slit up and dipped his arrows in the gall. However,
Eurystheus said that this labour should not be reckoned among the ten because he had not
got the better of the hydra by himself, but with the help of Iolaus.
[3]

As a third labour he ordered him to bring the Cerynitian hind alive to Mycenae.8 Now the hind was at Oenoe; it had golden horns and was sacred to Artemis; so
wishing neither to kill nor wound it, Hercules hunted it a whole year. But when, weary
with the chase, the beast took refuge on the mountain called Artemisius, and thence passed
to the river Ladon, Hercules shot it just as it
was about to cross the stream, and catching it put it on his shoulders and hastened
through Arcadia. But Artemis with Apollo met him,
and would have wrested the hind from him, and rebuked him for attempting to kill her
sacred animal.9
Howbeit, by pleading necessity and laying the blame on Eurystheus, he appeased the anger
of the goddess and carried the beast alive to Mycenae.
[4]

As a fourth labour he ordered him to bring the Erymanthian boar alive;10 now that animal ravaged Psophis, sallying from a mountain which they call Erymanthus. So passing
through Pholoe he was entertained by the centaur Pholus, a son of Silenus by a Melian nymph.11 He set roast meat before Hercules, while he himself ate his meat
raw. When Hercules called for wine, he said he feared to open the jar which belonged to
the centaurs in common.12 But Hercules, bidding him be of good courage, opened
it, and not long afterwards, scenting the smell, the centaurs arrived at the cave of
Pholus, armed with rocks and firs. The first who dared to enter, Anchius and Agrius, were
repelled by Hercules with a shower of brands, and the rest of them he shot and pursued as
far as Malea. Thence they took refuge with Chiron, who, driven by the Lapiths from Mount
Pelion, took up his abode at Malea. As the centaurs cowered about Chiron, Hercules shot an
arrow at them, which, passing through the arm of Elatus, stuck in the knee of Chiron.
Distressed at this, Hercules ran up to him, drew out the shaft, and applied a medicine
which Chiron gave him. But the hurt proving incurable, Chiron retired to the cave and
there he wished to die, but he could not, for he was immortal. However, Prometheus offered
himself to Zeus to be immortal in his stead, and so Chiron died. The rest of the centaurs
fled in different directions, and some came to Mount Malea, and Eurytion to Pholoe, and
Nessus to the river Evenus. The rest of them Poseidon received at Eleusis and hid them in a mountain. But
Pholus, drawing the arrow from a corpse, wondered that so little a thing could kill such
big fellows; howbeit, it slipped from his hand and lighting on his foot killed him on the
spot.13 So when
Hercules returned to Pholoe, he beheld Pholus dead; and he buried him and proceeded to the
boar hunt. And when he had chased the boar with shouts from a certain thicket, he drove
the exhausted animal into deep snow, trapped it, and brought it to Mycenae.
[5]

The fifth labour he laid on him was to carry out the dung of the cattle of Augeas in a
single day.14
Now Augeas was king of Elis; some say that he
was a son of the Sun, others that he was a son of Poseidon, and others that he was a son
of Phorbas; and he had many herds of cattle. Hercules accosted him, and without revealing
the command of Eurystheus, said that he would carry out the dung in one day, if Augeas
would give him the tithe of the cattle. Augeas was incredulous, but promised. Having taken
Augeas's son Phyleus to witness, Hercules made a breach in the foundations of the
cattle-yard, and then, diverting the courses of the Alpheus and Peneus, which
flowed near each other, he turned them into the yard, having first made an outlet for the
water through another opening. When Augeas learned that this had been accomplished at the
command of Eurystheus, he would not pay the reward; nay more, he denied that he had
promised to pay it, and on that point he professed himself ready to submit to arbitration.
The arbitrators having taken their seats, Phyleus was called by Hercules and bore witness
against his father, affirming that he had agreed to give him a reward. In a rage Augeas,
before the voting took place, ordered both Phyleus and Hercules to pack out of Elis. So Phyleus went to Dulichium and dwelt there,15 and Hercules repaired to Dexamenus at Olenus.16 He found Dexamenus on the point
of betrothing perforce his daughter Mnesimache to the centaur Eurytion, and being called
upon by him for help, he slew Eurytion when that centaur came to fetch his bride. But
Eurystheus would not admit this labour either among the ten, alleging that it had been
performed for hire.
[6]

The sixth labour he enjoined on him was to chase away the Stymphalian birds.17 Now at the city of Stymphalus in
Arcadia was the lake called Stymphalian,
embosomed in a deep wood. To it countless birds had flocked for refuge,
fearing to be preyed upon by the wolves.18 So when Hercules was at a loss how to drive the birds
from the wood, Athena gave him brazen castanets, which she had received from Hephaestus.
By clashing these on a certain mountain that overhung the lake, he scared the birds. They
could not abide the sound, but fluttered up in a fright, and in that way Hercules shot
them.
[7]

The seventh labour he enjoined on him was to bring the Cretan bull.19 Acusilaus says that this was the bull that
ferried across Europa for Zeus; but some say it was the bull that Poseidon sent up from
the sea when Minos promised to sacrifice to Poseidon what should appear out of the sea.
And they say that when he saw the beauty of the bull he sent it away to the herds and
sacrificed another to Poseidon; at which the god was angry and made the bull savage. To
attack this bull Hercules came to Crete, and
when, in reply to his request for aid, Minos told him to fight and catch the bull for
himself, he caught it and brought it to Eurystheus, and having shown it to him he let it
afterwards go free. But the bull roamed to Sparta and all Arcadia, and
traversing the Isthmus arrived at Marathon in Attica and harried the inhabitants.
[8]

The eighth labour he enjoined on him was to bring the mares of Diomedes the Thracian to
Mycenae.20 Now this Diomedes was a son of Ares and
Cyrene, and he was king of the Bistones, a very
warlike Thracian people, and he owned man-eating mares. So Hercules sailed with a band of
volunteers, and having overpowered the grooms who were in charge of the mangers, he drove
the mares to the sea. When the Bistones in arms came to the rescue, he committed the mares
to the guardianship of Abderus, who was a son of Hermes, a native of Opus in Locris, and a minion of Hercules; but the mares killed him
by dragging him after them. But Hercules fought against the Bistones, slew Diomedes and
compelled the rest to flee. And he founded a city Abdera beside the grave of Abderus who had been done to death,21 and bringing the mares he gave them to
Eurystheus. But Eurystheus let them go, and they came to Mount Olympus, as it is called, and there they were destroyed by the wild
beasts.
[9]

The ninth labour he enjoined on Hercules was to bring the belt of Hippolyte.22 She was queen of the Amazons, who dwelt about the river Thermodon, a
people great in war; for they cultivated the manly virtues, and if ever they gave birth to
children through intercourse with the other sex, they reared the females; and they pinched
off the right breasts that they might not be trammelled by them in throwing the javelin,
but they kept the left breasts, that they might suckle. Now Hippolyte had the belt of Ares
in token of her superiority to all the rest. Hercules was sent to fetch this belt because
Admete, daughter of Eurystheus, desired to get it. So taking with him a band of volunteer
comrades in a single ship he set sail and put in to the island of Paros, which was inhabited by the sons of Minos,23 to wit, Eurymedon, Chryses,
Nephalion, and Philolaus. But it chanced that two of those in the ship landed and were
killed by the sons of Minos. Indignant at this, Hercules killed the sons of
Minos on the spot and besieged the rest closely, till they sent envoys to request that in
the room of the murdered men he would take two, whom he pleased. So he raised the siege,
and taking on board the sons of Androgeus, son of Minos, to wit, Alcaeus and Sthenelus, he
came to Mysia, to the court of Lycus, son of
Dascylus, and was entertained by him; and in a battle between him and the king of the
Bebryces Hercules sided with Lycus and slew many, amongst others King Mygdon, brother of
Amycus. And he took much land from the Bebryces and gave it to Lycus, who called it all
Heraclea.

Having put in at the harbor of Themiscyra, he received a visit from Hippolyte, who
inquired why he was come, and promised to give him the belt. But Hera in the likeness of
an Amazon went up and down the multitude saying
that the strangers who had arrived were carrying off the queen. So the Amazons in arms
charged on horseback down on the ship. But when Hercules saw them in arms, he suspected
treachery, and killing Hippolyte stripped her of her belt. And after fighting the rest he
sailed away and touched at Troy.

But it chanced that the city was then in distress consequently on the wrath of Apollo and
Poseidon. For desiring to put the wantonness of Laomedon to the proof, Apollo
and Poseidon assumed the likeness of men and undertook to fortify Pergamum for wages. But when they had fortified it, he
would not pay them their wages.24 Therefore Apollo sent a pestilence, and
Poseidon a sea monster, which, carried up by a flood, snatched away the people of the
plain. But as oracles foretold deliverance from these calamities if Laomedon would expose
his daughter Hesione to be devoured by the sea monster, he exposed her by fastening her to
the rocks near the sea.25 Seeing her exposed,
Hercules promised to save her on condition of receiving from Laomedon the mares which Zeus
had given in compensation for the rape of Ganymede.26 On Laomedon's saying that he would give them, Hercules killed the monster and
saved Hesione. But when Laomedon would not give the stipulated reward,27 Hercules put to sea after
threatening to make war on Troy.28

And he touched at Aenus, where he was
entertained by Poltys. And as he was sailing away he shot and killed on the Aenian beach a
lewd fellow, Sarpedon, son of Poseidon and brother of Poltys. And having come to
Thasos and subjugated the Thracians who dwelt
in the island, he gave it to the sons of Androgeus to dwell in. From Thasos he proceeded to Torone, and there, being challenged to wrestle by Polygonus and Telegonus,
sons of Proteus, son of Poseidon, he killed them in the wrestling match.29 And
having brought the belt to Mycenae he gave it
to Eurystheus.
[10]

As a tenth labour he was ordered to fetch the kine of Geryon from Erythia.30 Now Erythia was an island near the ocean; it is now
called Gadira.31 This island was inhabited by Geryon, son of Chrysaor by
Callirrhoe, daughter of Ocean. He had the body of three men grown together and joined in
one at the waist, but parted in three from the flanks and thighs.32 He owned red kine, of which Eurytion was the herdsman and Orthus,33 the two-headed hound, begotten by Typhon on Echidna,
was the watchdog. So journeying through Europe to
fetch the kine of Geryon he destroyed many wild beasts and set foot in Libya,34 and proceeding to Tartessus he erected
as tokens of his journey two pillars over against each other at the boundaries
of Europe and Libya.35 But being heated by the Sun on his journey, he bent his bow at the god,
who in admiration of his hardihood, gave him a golden goblet in which he crossed the
ocean.36 And having reached Erythia he lodged on
Mount Abas. However the dog, perceiving him, rushed at him; but he smote it with his club,
and when the herdsman Eurytion came to the help of the dog, Hercules killed
him also. But Menoetes, who was there pasturing the kine of Hades, reported to Geryon what
had occurred, and he, coming up with Hercules beside the river Anthemus,37 as he was driving away the kine, joined battle with
him and was shot dead. And Hercules, embarking the kine in the goblet and sailing across
to Tartessus, gave back the goblet to the Sun.

And passing through Abderia38 he came to
Liguria,39 where Ialebion and Dercynus, sons of Poseidon, attempted
to rob him of the kine, but he killed them40 and went on his way through Tyrrhenia. But at Rhegium a bull broke away41 and hastily plunging into the sea swam across to
Sicily, and having passed through the
neighboring country since called Italy after it,
for the Tyrrhenians called the bull italus,42 came to the plain of Eryx, who reigned over the Elymi.43 Now Eryx was a son of Poseidon, and he mingled the bull with
his own herds. So Hercules entrusted the kine to Hephaestus and hurried away in search of
the bull. He found it in the herds of Eryx, and when the king refused to surrender it
unless Hercules should beat him in a wrestling bout, Hercules beat him thrice, killed him
in the wrestling, and taking the bull drove it with the rest of the herd to the Ionian
Sea. But when he came to the creeks of the sea, Hera afflicted the cows with a gadfly, and
they dispersed among the skirts of the mountains of Thrace. Hercules went in pursuit, and having caught some, drove them to the
Hellespont; but the remainder were thenceforth
wild.44 Having
with difficulty collected the cows, Hercules blamed the river Strymon, and whereas it had
been navigable before, he made it unnavigable by filling it with rocks; and he conveyed the kine and gave them to Eurystheus, who sacrificed them to Hera.
[11]

When the labours had been performed in eight years and a month,45 Eurystheus ordered Hercules, as an eleventh labour, to fetch
golden apples from the Hesperides,46 for he did not
acknowledge the labour of the cattle of Augeas nor that of the hydra. These apples were
not, as some have said, in Libya, but on Atlas
among the Hyperboreans.47 They were
presented < by Earth> to Zeus after his marriage with Hera, and guarded by
an immortal dragon with a hundred heads, offspring of Typhon and Echidna, which spoke with
many and divers sorts of voices. With it the Hesperides also were on guard, to wit, Aegle,
Erythia, Hesperia, and Arethusa. So journeying he came to the river Echedorus. And Cycnus,
son of Ares and Pyrene, challenged him to single combat. Ares championed the cause of
Cycnus and marshalled the combat, but a thunderbolt was hurled between the two and parted
the combatants.48 And going on foot
through Illyria and hastening to the river
Eridanus he came to the nymphs, the daughters
of Zeus and Themis. They revealed Nereus to him, and Hercules seized him while he slept,
and though the god turned himself into all kinds of shapes, the hero bound him and did not
release him till he had learned from him where were the apples and the Hesperides.49 Being informed, he
traversed Libya. That country was then ruled by
Antaeus, son of Poseidon,50
who used to kill strangers by forcing them to wrestle. Being forced to wrestle with him,
Hercules hugged him, lifted him aloft,51 broke and
killed him; for when he touched earth so it was that he waxed stronger, wherefore some
said that he was a son of Earth.

After Libya he traversed Egypt. That country was then ruled by
Busiris,52 a son of Poseidon by Lysianassa, daughter of Epaphus. This Busiris
used to sacrifice strangers on an altar of Zeus in accordance with a certain oracle. For
Egypt was visited with dearth for nine years,
and Phrasius, a learned seer who had come from Cyprus, said that the dearth would cease if they slaughtered a
stranger man in honor of Zeus every year. Busiris began by slaughtering the seer himself
and continued to slaughter the strangers who landed. So Hercules also was seized and haled
to the altars, but he burst his bonds and slew both Busiris and his son Amphidamas.53

And traversing Asia he put in to Thermydrae, the
harbor of the Lindians.54 And having loosed one of the
bullocks from the cart of a cowherd, he sacrificed it and feasted. But the cowherd, unable
to protect himself, stood on a certain mountain and cursed. Wherefore to this day, when
they sacrifice to Hercules, they do it with curses.55

And passing by Arabia he slew Emathion, son of
Tithonus,56 and journeying through Libya to the outer sea he received the goblet from the Sun. And having
crossed to the opposite mainland he shot on the Caucasus the eagle, offspring of Echidna and Typhon, that was devouring the
liver of Prometheus, and he released Prometheus,57 after choosing for
himself the bond of olive,58
and to Zeus he presented Chiron, who, though immortal, consented to die in
his stead.

Now Prometheus had told Hercules not to go himself after the apples but to send Atlas,
first relieving him of the burden of the sphere; so when he was come to Atlas in the land
of the Hyperboreans, he took the advice and relieved Atlas. But when Atlas had received
three apples from the Hesperides, he came to Hercules, and not wishing to support the
sphere< he said that he would himself carry the apples to Eurystheus, and bade
Hercules hold up the sky in his stead. Hercules promised to do so, but succeeded by craft
in putting it on Atlas instead. For at the advice of Prometheus he begged Atlas to hold up
the sky till he should>59 put a pad on his head. When Atlas heard that, he laid
the apples down on the ground and took the sphere from Hercules. And so Hercules picked up
the apples and departed. But some say that he did not get them from Atlas, but that he
plucked the apples himself after killing the guardian snake. And having brought the apples
he gave them to Eurystheus. But he, on receiving them, bestowed them on
Hercules, from whom Athena got them and conveyed them back again; for it was not lawful
that they should be laid down anywhere.
[12]

A twelfth labour imposed on Hercules was to bring Cerberus from Hades.60 Now this Cerberus had three heads
of dogs, the tail of a dragon, and on his back the heads of all sorts of snakes. When
Hercules was about to depart to fetch him, he went to Eumolpus at Eleusis, wishing to be initiated. However it was not
then lawful for foreigners to be initiated: since he proposed to be initiated as the
adoptive son of Pylius. But not being able to see the mysteries because he had not been
cleansed of the slaughter of the centaurs, he was cleansed by Eumolpus and then
initiated.61 And having come to
Taenarum in Laconia, where is the
mouth of the descent to Hades, he descended through it.62 But when
the souls saw him, they fled, save Meleager and the Gorgon Medusa. And Hercules drew his
sword against the Gorgon, as if she were alive, but he learned from Hermes that she was an
empty phantom.63 And being come near to the gates
of Hades he found Theseus and Pirithous,64 him who wooed Persephone in wedlock and was therefore bound fast.
And when they beheld Hercules, they stretched out their hands as if they should be raised
from the dead by his might. And Theseus, indeed, he took by the hand and raised up, but
when he would have brought up Pirithous, the earth quaked and he let go. And
he rolled away also the stone of Ascalaphus.65 And wishing to provide the souls with
blood, he slaughtered one of the kine of Hades. But Menoetes, son of Ceuthonymus, who
tended the king, challenged Hercules to wrestle, and, being seized round the middle, had
his ribs broken;66 howbeit, he was let off at
the request of Persephone. When Hercules asked Pluto for Cerberus, Pluto ordered him to
take the animal provided he mastered him without the use of the weapons which he carried.
Hercules found him at the gates of Acheron, and,
cased in his cuirass and covered by the lion's skin, he flung his arms round the head of
the brute, and though the dragon in its tail bit him, he never relaxed his grip and
pressure till it yielded.67 So he carried it off and ascended
through Troezen.68 But Demeter
turned Ascalaphus into a short-eared owl,69 and
Hercules, after showing Cerberus to Eurystheus, carried him back to Hades.

3 The Greeks had two distinct words for sacrificing, according as the sacrifice was
offered to a god or to a hero, that is, to a worshipful dead man; the former sacrifice
was expressed by the verb θύειν, the latter by the verb
ἐναγίζειν. The verbal distinction can hardly be
preserved in English, except by a periphrasis. For the distinction between the two, see
Paus. 2.10.1; Paus.
2.11.7; Paus. 3.19.3; and for more instances of
ἐναγίζειν in this sense, see Paus. 3.1.8; Paus. 4.21.11; Paus. 7.17.8; Paus. 7.19.10;
Paus. 7.20.9; Paus.
8.14.10-11; Paus. 8.41.1; Paus. 9.5.14; Paus. 9.18.3-4; Paus. 9.38.5; Paus. 10.24.6;
Inscriptiones Graecae Megaridis, Oropiae, Boeotiae, ed. G.
Dittenberger, p. 32, No. 53. For instances of the antithesis between θύειν and ἐναγίζειν, see
Hdt. 2.44; Plut. De Herodoti malignitate 13;
Ptolemy Hephaest., Nauck 2nd ed., Nov. Hist. iii. in Westermann's Mythographi
Graeci, p. 186; Pollux viii.91; Scholiast on Eur. Ph.
274. The corresponding nouns θυσίαι and ἐναγίσματα are similarly opposed to each other. See Aristot. Ath. Pol. 58. Another word which is used
only of sacrificing to heroes or the dead is ἐντέμνειν
See, for example, Thuc. 5.11, ὠςἥρωΐτεἐντέμνουσι （of the sacrifices offered at Amphipolis to Brasidas）. Sometimes the
verbs ἐναγίζειν and ἐντέμνειν are coupled in this sense. See Philostratus, Her. xx.27,
28. For more evidence as to the use of these words, see Fr. Pfister,
Der Reliquienkult im Altertum (Giessen, 1909-1912), pp. 466ff.
Compare P. Foucart, Le culte des héros chez les Grecs
（Paris, 1918）, pp. 96, 98 （from the Memoires de l'
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, vol.
xlii）.

4 Compare Diod.
4.12.1, who however places this incident after the adventure with the
Erymanthian boar.

6 Compare Eur. Herc. 419ff.; Diod.
4.11.5ff.; Paus. 2.37.4; Paus. 5.5.10; Paus. 5.17.11; Zenobius,
Cent. vi.26; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica vi.212ff.;
Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.237ff.; Verg. A.
8.299ff.; Ov. Met. 9.69ff.; Hyginus, Fab.
30. Diodorus and Ovid multiply the hydra's heads to a hundred; the sceptical
Pausanias （Paus. 2.37.4） would reduce
them to one. Both Diodorus and Pausanias, together with Zenobius and Hyginus, mention
that Herakles poisoned his arrows with the gall of the hydra. The account which Zenobius
gives of the hydra is clearly based on that of Apollodorus, though as usual he does not
name his authority.

7 For this service the crab was promoted by
Hera, the foe of Herakles, to the rank of a constellation in the sky. See
Eratosthenes, Cat. 11 （who quotes as his authority the
Heraclia of Panyasis）; Hyginus, Ast.
ii.23.

8 Compare Pind. O. 3.28(50)ff.; Eur. Herc.
375ff.; Diod. 4.13.1; Tzetzes, Chiliades 11.265ff.;
Hyginus, Fab. 30. Pindar says that in his quest of the hind with the
golden horns Herakles had seen “the land at the back of the cold north
wind.” Hence, as the reindeer is said to be the only species of deer of which
the female has antlers, Sir William Ridgeway argues ingeniously that the hind with the
golden horns was no other than the reindeer. See his Early Age of
Greece 1. （Cambridge, 1901）, pp. 360ff. Later Greek
tradition, as we see from Apollodorus, did not place the native land of the hind so far
away. Oenoe was a place in Argolis. Mount
Artemisius is the range which divides Argolis
from the plain of Mantinea. The
Ladon is the most beautiful river of Arcadia, if not of Greece. The river Cerynites, from which the hind took its name, is a river
which rises in Arcadia and flows through
Achaia into the sea. The modern name of the
river is Bouphousia. See Paus. 7.25.5, with my
note.

9 The hind is said to have borne the
inscription “Taygete dedicated （me） to Artemis.”
See Pind. O. 3.29(53)ff., with the Scholiast.

10 As to the Erymanthian boar and the centaurs, see Soph. Trach. 1095ff.; Diod. 4.12;
Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.268ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 30. The boar's
tusks were said to be preserved in a sanctuary of Apollo at Cumae in Campania （Paus.
8.24.5）.

11 As to these nymphs, see Hesiod, Th. 187. The name perhaps means an ash-tree nymph
（from μελία, an ash tree）, as Dryad
means an oak tree nymph （from δρῦς, an oak
tree）.

12 Compare Tzetzes, Chiliades
ii.271; Theocritus vii.149ff. The jar had been presented by
Dionysus to a centaur with orders not to open it till Herakles came （Diodorus
Siculus iv.12.3）.

14 As to Augeas and his cattle-stalls, see
Theocritus xxv.7ff.; Diod. 4.13.3; Paus. 5.1.9ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.278ff. （who seems
to follow Apollodorus）; Scholiast on Hom. Il. ii.629, xi.700;
Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.172; Hyginus, Fab. 30.
According to the rationalistic Pausanias, the name of the father of Augeas was Eleus
（Eleios）, which was popularly corrupted into Helios,
“Sun”; Serv. Verg. A. 8.300.

17 As to the Stymphalian birds, see Ap. Rhod., Argon.
ii.1052-1057, with the Scholiast on 1054; Diod. 4.13.2; Strab. 8.6.8; Paus. 8.22.4;
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica vi.227ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades
ii.291ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 20, 30; Serv.
Verg. A. 8.300. These fabulous birds were said to shoot their feathers like
arrows. Compare D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, Glossary of Greek Birds,
p. 162. From the Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.1052-1057, with the Scholiast on
1054 we learn that the use of a brazen rattle to frighten the birds was
mentioned both by Pherecydes and Hellanicus.

18 In no other ancient
account of the Stymphalian birds, so far as I know, are wolves mentioned. There is
perhaps a reminiscence of an ancient legend in the name of the Wolf's Ravine, which is
still given to the deep glen, between immense pine-covered slopes, through which the
road runs southwestward from Stymphalus to Orchomenus. The glen forms a conspicuous feature in the landscape to anyone
seated on the site of the ancient city and looking across the clear shallow water of the
lake to the high mountains that bound the valley on the south. See Frazer on Paus.
vol. iv. p. 269.

20 As
to the man-eating mares of Diomedes, see Diod. 4.15.3ff.;
Philostratus, Im. ii.25; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica
vi.245ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.299-308 （who seems to
follow Apollodorus, except that he speaks of the animals in the masculine as horses, not
mares）; Strab. 7 Fr. 44, 47, ed.
A. Meineke; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Ἄβδηρα; Hyginus, Fab. 30 （who gives the
names of four horses, not mares）. According to Diod. 4.13.4,
Herakles killed the Thracian king Diomedes himself by exposing him to his own mares,
which devoured him. Further, the historian tells us that when Herakles brought the mares
to Eurystheus, the king dedicated them to Hera, and that their descendants existed down
to the time of Alexander the Great.

21 Compare Strab. 7
Fr. 44, 47, ed. A. Meineke; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Ἄβδηρα; Philostratus, Im. ii.25. From
Philostratus we learn that athletic games were celebrated in honour of Abderus. They
comprised boxing, wrestling, the pancratium, and all the other usual contests, with the
exception of racing—no doubt because Abderus was said to have been killed by
horses. We may compare the rule which excluded horses from the Arician grove, because
horses were said to have killed Hippolytus, with whom Virbius, the traditionary founder
of the sanctuary, was identified. See Verg. A.
7.761-780; Ovid, Fasti iii.265ff. When we remember that the Thracian
king Lycurgus is said to have been killed by horses in order to restore the fertility of
the land （see Apollod. 3.5.1）, we may
conjecture that the tradition of the man-eating mares of Diomedes, another Thracian king
who is said to have been killed by horses, points to a custom of human sacrifice
performed by means of horses, whether the victim was trampled to death by their hoofs or
tied to their tails and rent asunder. If the sacrifice was offered, as the legend of
Lycurgus suggests, for the sake of fertilizing the ground, the reason for thus tearing
the victim to pieces may have been to scatter the precious life-giving fragments as
widely and as quickly as possible over the barren earth. Compare Adonis,
Attis, Osiris ii.97ff. The games at Abdera are alluded to by the poet Machon, quoted by Athenaeus
viii.41, p. 349 B.

23 According to Diod. 5.79.2, Rhadamanthys bestowed
the island of Paros on his son Alcaeus.
Combined with the evidence of Apollodorus, the tradition points to a Cretan colony in
Paros.

24 Compare Hom. Il. 7.452ff., Hom. Il.
21.441-457. According to the former of these passages, the walls of Troy were built by Poseidon and Apollo jointly for king
Laomedon. But according to the latter passage the walls were built by Poseidon alone,
and while he thus toiled as a mason, Apollo served as a herdsman, tending the king's
cattle in the wooded glens of Ida. Their period of service lasted for a year, and at the
end of it the faithless king not only dismissed the two deities without the stipulated
wages which they had honestly earned, but threatened that, if they did not take
themselves off, he would tie Apollo hand and foot and sell him for a slave in the
islands, not however before he had lopped off the ears of both of them with a knife.
Thus insulted as well as robbed, the two gods retired with wrath and indignation at
their hearts. This strange tale, told by Homer, is alluded to by Pind. O. 8.30(40)ff., who adds to it the detail that the two gods took the
hero Aeacus with them to aid them in the work of fortification; and the Scholiast
on Pindar （pp. 194ff. ed. Boeckh） explains that, as
Troy was fated to be captured, it was
necessary that in building the walls the immortals should be assisted by a mortal, else
the city would have been impregnable. The sarcastic Lucian tells us
（Lucian, De sacrificiis 4） that both Apollo and
Poseidon laboured as bricklayers at the walls of Troy, and that the sum of which the king cheated them was more than thirty
Trojan drachmas. The fraud is alluded to by Verg. G.
1.502 and Hor. Carm. 3.3.21ff. Compare
Hyginus, Fab. 89; Ov. Met. 11.194ff.;
Serv. Verg. A. 8.157; Scriptores rerum
mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 43ff., 138 (First Vatican Mythographer 136; Second
Vatican Mythographer 193). Homer does not explain why Apollo and Poseidon took
service with Laomedon, but his Scholiast on Hom. Il. xxi.444, in agreement
with Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 34, says that their service was a
punishment inflicted on them by Zeus for a conspiracy into which some of the gods had
entered for the purpose of putting him, the supreme god, in bonds. The conspiracy is
mentioned by Hom. Il. 1.399ff.）, who names
Poseidon, Hera, and Athena, but not Apollo, among the conspirators; their nefarious
design was defeated by the intervention of Thetis and the hundred-handed giant Briareus.
We have already heard of Apollo serving a man in the capacity of neatherd as a
punishment for murder perpetrated by the deity （see above, Apollod. 1.9.15, with the note）. These back-stair
chronicles of Olympus shed a curious light on
the early Greek conception of divinity.

25 For the story of the rescue of
Hesione by Herakles, see Diod. 4.42; Scholiast on Hom. Il.
xx.146; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 34; Ov. Met. 11.211ff.; Valerius Flaccus, Argon.
ii.451ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 89; Serv. Verg.
A. 8.157; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 44 (First
Vatican Mythographer 136). A curious variant of the story is told, without
mention of Hesione, by the Second Vatican Mythographer （193, i. p.
138）. Tzetzes says that Herakles, in full armour, leaped into the jaws
of the sea-monster, and was in its belly for three days hewing and hacking it, and that
at the end of the three days he came forth without any hair on his head. The
Scholiast on Hom. Il. xx.146 tells the tale similarly, and refers to
Hellanicus as his authority. The story of Herakles and Hesione corresponds closely to
that of Perseus and Andromeda （see Apollod.
2.4.3）. Both tales may have originated in a custom of sacrificing
maidens to be the brides of the Sea. Compare The Magic Art and the
Evolution of Kings, ii.150ff.

26 The
horses were given by Zeus to Tros, the father of Ganymede. See Hom. Il. 5.265ff.; HH Aphr. 210ff.; Paus. 5.24.5. According to another account, which had the
support of a Cyclic poet, the compensation given to the bereaved father took the shape,
not of horses, but of a golden vine wrought by Hephaestus. See Scholiast on Eur.
Or. 1391. As the duty of Ganymede was to pour the red nectar from a golden bowl
in heaven （HH Aphr. 206）, there would be a
certain suitability in the bestowal of a golden vine to replace him in his earthly
home.

31 Compare Hdt. 4.8;
Strab. 3.2.11, Strab. 3.5
4; Pliny, Nat. Hist. iv.120; Solinus xxiii.12. Gadira
is Cadiz. According to Pliny, Nat. Hist.
iv.120, the name is derived from a Punic word gadir, meaning “hedge.” Compare Dionysius, Perieg.
453ff. The same word agadir is still used in
the south of Morocco in the sense of
“fortified house,” and many places in that country bear the name.
Amongst them the port of Agadir is the best
known. See E. Doutté, En tribu （Paris,
1914）, pp. 50ff. The other name of the island is given by
Solinus xxiii.12 in the form Erythrea, and by Mela iii.47 in
the form Eythria.

34 Compare Diod.
4.17.3ff., who says that Herakles completely cleared Crete of wild beasts, and that he subdued many of the
wild beasts in the deserts of Libya and
rendered the land fertile and prosperous.

35 The opinions of the ancients were much
divided on the subject of the Pillars of Herakles. See Strab.
3.5.5. The usual opinion apparently identified them with the rock of Calpe （Gibraltar） and the rock of Abyla, Abila, or Abylica
（Ceuta） on the northern and
southern sides of the straits. See Strab. 3.5.5;
Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 649; Pliny, Nat. Hist.
iii.4; Mela i.27, ii.95; Martianus Capella vi.624.
Further, it seems to have been commonly supposed that before the time of Herakles the
two continents were here joined by an isthmus, and that the hero cut through the isthmus
and so created the straits. See Diod. 4.18.5; Seneca, Herakles Furens
235ff.; Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 1240; Pliny, Nat. Hist.
iii.4; Pliny, Nat. Hist. iii.4; Mela i.27;
Martianus Capella vi.625. Some people, however, on the contrary, thought
that the straits were formerly wider, and that Herakles narrowed them to prevent the
monsters of the Atlantic ocean from bursting into the Mediterranean
（Diod. 4.18.5）. An entirely different opinion
identified the Pillars of Herakles with two brazen pillars in the sanctuary of Herakles
at Gadira （Cadiz）, on which
was engraved an inscription recording the cost of building the temple. See Strab. 3.5.5; compare Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii.242,
who speaks of “the columns of Herakles consecrated at Gadira.” For
other references to the Pillars of Herakles, see Pind. O.
3.43ff., Pind. N. 3.21, Pind. I. 4.11ff.; Athenaeus vii.98, p. 315 CD; Tzetzes,
Chiliades ii.339 （who here calls the pillars Alybe and
Abinna）; Scholiast on Plat. Tim. 24e; Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, Orbis Descriptio 64-68, with the commentary of Eustathius
（Geographi Graeci Minores, ed. C. Müller, ii. pp. 107,
228）. According to Eustathius, Calpe was the name given to the rock of Gibraltar by the barbarians, but its Greek name was Alybe; and the rock
of Ceuta was called Abenna by the barbarians
but by the Greeks Cynegetica, that is, the Hunter's Rock. He tells us further that the
pillars were formerly named the Pillars of Cronus, and afterwards the Pillars of
Briareus.

36 Apollodorus seems to be here following Pherecydes,
as we learn from a passage which Athenaeus xi.39, p. 470 CD quotes from the
third book of Pherecydes as follows: “And Herakles drew his bow at him as if
he would shoot, and the Sun bade him give over; so Herakles feared and gave over. And in
return the Sun bestowed on him the golden goblet which carried him with his horses, when
he set, through the Ocean all night to the east, where the Sun rises. Then Herakles
journeyed in that goblet to Erythia. And when he was on the open sea, Ocean, to make
trial of him, caused the goblet to heave wildly on the waves. Herakles was about to
shoot him with an arrow; and the Ocean was afraid, and bade him give over.”
Stesichorus described the Sun embarking in a golden goblet that he might cross the ocean
in the darkness of night and come to his mother, his wedded wife, and children dear. See
Athenaeus xi.38, p. 468 E; compare Athenaeus xi.16, p. 781
D. The voyage of Herakles in the golden goblet was also related by the early
poets Pisander and Panyasis in the poems, both called Heraclia, which
they devoted to the exploits of the great hero. See Athenaeus xi.38, p. 469
D; compare Macrobius, Sat. v.21.16, 19. Another poet, Mimnermus,
supposed that at night the weary Sun slept in a golden bed, which floated across the sea
to Ethiopia, where a chariot with fresh horses
stood ready for him to mount and resume his daily journey across the sky. See
Athenaeus xi.39, p. 470 A.

39 Apollodorus has much abridged a famous adventure of Herakles in Liguria. Passing through the country with the herds of
Geryon, he was attacked by a great multitude of the warlike natives, who tried to rob
him of the cattle. For a time he repelled them with his bow, but his supply of arrows
running short he was reduced to great straits; for the ground, being soft earth,
afforded no stones to be used as missiles. So he prayed to his father Zeus, and the god
in pity rained down stones from the sky; and by picking them up and hurling them at his
foes, the hero was able to turn the tables on them. The place where this adventure took
place was said to be a plain between Marseilles
and the Rhone, which was called the Stony Plain
on account of the vast quantity of stones, about as large as a man's hand, which were
scattered thickly over it. In his play Prometheus Unbound, Aeschylus
introduced this story in the form of a prediction put in the mouth of Prometheus and
addressed to his deliverer Herakles. See Strab. 4.1.7;
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiq. Rom. i.41; Eustathius,
Commentary on Dionysius Perieg. 76 （Geographi Graeci Minores, ed. C.
Müller, ii.231）; Hyginus, Ast. ii.6; TGF
(Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 66ff. The Stony Plain is now called the Plaine de la
Crau. It “attracts the attention of
all travellers between Arles and Marseilles, since it is intersected by the railway that
joins those two cities. It forms a wide level area, extending for many square miles,
which is covered with round rolled stones from the size of a pebble to that of a man's
head. These are supposed to have been brought down from the
Alps by the Durance at some
early period, when this plain was submerged and formed the bed of what was then a bay of
the Mediterranean at the mouth of that river and the Rhone” （H. F. Tozer, Selections from Strabo, p.
117）.

41 The author clearly
derives the name of Rhegium from this incident
（Ρήγιον from ἀπορρήγνυσι）. The story of the escape of the bull, or heifer,
and the pursuit of it by Herakles was told by Hellanicus. See Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, Ant. Rom. i.35.2. It is somewhat singular that Apollodorus
passes so lightly over the exploits of Herakles in Italy, and in particular that he says nothing about those adventures of his
at Rome, to which the Romans attached much
significance. For the Italian adventures of the hero, and his sojourn in Rome, see Diod. 4.20-22; Dionysius
of Halicarnassus, Antiq. Rom. i.34ff., 38-44; Prop.
iv.9; Verg. A. 8.201ff.; Ovid, Fasti
i.543ff. On the popularity of the worship of Herakles in Italy, see Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiq. Rom.
i.40.6, who says: “And in many other parts of Italy （besides Rome） precincts are consecrated to the god, and altars are set
up both in cities and beside roads; and hardly will you find a place in Italy where the god is not
honoured.”

42 Some of the ancients supposed that the name of Italy was derived from the Latin vitulus,
“a calf.” See Varro, Re. Rust. ii.1.9; Dionysius
of Halicarnassus, Antiq. Rom. i.35.2; compare Aulus Gellius
xi.1.2.

44 The story was apparently told to account for the
origin of wild cattle in Thrace.

45 This period for the completion of the labours of Herakles is mentioned also by
the Scholiast on Hom. Il. viii.368 and Tzetzes, Chiliades
ii.353ff., both of whom, however, may have had the present passage of Apollodorus
before them. It is possible that the period refers to the eight years' cycle, which
figured prominently in the religious calendar of the ancient Greeks; for example, the
Pythian games were originally held at intervals of eight years. See Geminus,
Element. Astron. viii.25ff., ed. C. Manitius; Censorinus, De die natali
18. It is to be remembered that the period of service performed by Herakles for
Eurystheus was an expiation for the murder of his children （see Apollod. 2.4.12）. Now Cadmus is said to have
served Ares for eight years as an expiation for the slaughter of the dragon, the
offspring of Ares （see Apollod.
3.4.2）. But in those days, we are told, the “eternal
year” comprised eight common years （Apollod.
3.4.2）. Now Apollo served Admetus for a year as an expiation for the
slaughter of the Cyclopes （Apollod.
3.10.4）; but according to Serv. Verg. A.
7.761, the period of Apollo's service was not one but nine years. In making this
statement Servius, or his authority, probably had before him a Greek author, who
mentioned an ἐννεατηρίς as the period of Apollo's
service. But though ἐννεατηρίς means literally
“nine years,” the period, in consequence of the Greek mode of
reckoning, was actually equivalent to eight years （compare Celsus, De die
natali 18.4, “Octaeterisfacta, quaetuncenneaterisvocitata, quiaprimuseiusannusnonoquoqueannoredibat.”） These legends about the servitude of Cadmus,
Apollo, and Herakles for eight years, render it probable that in ancient times Greek
homicides were banished for eight years, and had during that time to do penance by
serving a foreigner. Now this period of eight years was called a “great
year” （Censorinus, De die natali 18.5）, and the
period of banishment for a homicide was regularly a year. See Apollod. 2.8.3; Eur. Hipp.34-37, Eur. Or. 1643-1645; Nicolaus Damascenus, Frag 20
（Fragmenta Historicorum Graccorum, ed. C. Müller,
iii.369）; Hesychius, s.v. ἀπενιαυτισμός; Suidas, s.v. ἀπεναυτίσαι. Hence it seems probable that, though in later times
the period of a homicide's banishment was a single ordinary year, it may formerly have
been a “great year,” or period of eight ordinary years. It deserves
to be noted that any god who had forsworn himself by the Styx had to expiate his fault
by silence and fasting for a full year, after which he was banished the company of the
gods for nine years （Hes. Th.
793-804ff.）; and further that any man who partook of human flesh in the
rites of Lycaean Zeus was supposed to be turned into a wolf for nine years. See Paus. 8.2; Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii.81;
Augustine, De civitate Dei xviii.17. These notions point to a nine years'
period of expiation, which may have been observed in some places instead of the eight
years' period. In the present passage of Apollodorus, the addition of a month to the
eight years' period creates a difficulty which I am unable to explain. Ancient
mathematicians defined a “great year” as the period at the end of
which the sun, moon, and planets again occupy the same positions relatively to each
other which they occupied at the beginning; but on the length of the period opinions
were much divided. See Cicero, De natura deorum ii.20.51ff. Different,
apparently, from the “great year” was the
“revolving” （vertens）
or “mundane” （mundanus） year, which was the period at the end of which, not only
the sun, moon, and planets, but also the so-called fixed stars again occupy the
positions relatively to each other which they occupied at the beginning; for the
ancients recognized that the so-called fixed stars do move, though their motion is
imperceptible to our senses. The length of a “revolving” or
“mundane” year was calculated by ancient physicists at fifteen
thousand years. See Cicero, Somnium Scipionis 7, with the commentary of Macrobius,
ii.11.

46 As to the
apples of the Hesperides, see Hes. Th. 215ff.; Eur. Herc. 394ff.; Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396ff.;
with the Scholiast Ap. Rhod. Argon. iv.1396; Diod. 4.26; Paus. 5.11.6; Paus. 5.18.4;
Paus. 6.19.8; Eratosthenes, Cat. 3;
Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.355ff.; Ov. Met.
4.637ff., ix.190; Hyginus, Fab. 30; Hyginus, Ast. ii.3;
Scholia in Caesaris Germanici Aratea, pp. 382ff., in Martianus Capella, ed. Fr.
Eyssenhardt; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 13ff.,
130 (First Vatican Mythographer 38; Second Vatican Mythographer 161). From the
Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396ff. we learn that the story of
Herakles and the apples of the Hesperides was told by Pherecydes in the second book of
his work on the marriage of Hera. The close resemblance which the Scholiast's narrative
bears to that of Apollodorus seems to show that here, as in many other places, our
author followed Pherecydes. The account given by Pherecydes of the origin of the golden
apples is as follows. When Zeus married Hera, the gods brought presents to the bride.
Among the rest, Earth brought golden apples, which Hera so much admired that she ordered
them to be planted in the garden of the gods beside Mount Atlas. But, as the daughters
of Atlas used to pilfer the golden fruit, she set a huge serpent to guard the tree. Such
is the story told, on the authority of Pherecydes, by Eratosthenes, Hyginus, Astr.
ii.3, and the Scholiast on the Aratea of Germanicus.

47 Here Apollodorus departs from the
usual version, which placed the gardens of the Hesperides in the far west, not the far
north. We have seen that Herakles is said to have gone to the far north to fetch the
hind with the golden horns （see above, Apollod.
2.5.3 note）; also he is reported to have brought from the land of the
Hyperboreans the olive spray which was to form the victor's crown at the Olympic games.
See Pind. O. 3.11(20)ff.; Paus.
5.7.7, compare Paus. 5.15.3.

48 Compare Hyginus, Fab. 31, who
describes the intervention of Mars （Ares） on the side of his son
Cycnus, and the fall of the thunderbolt which parted the combatants; yet he says that
Herakles killed Cycnus. This combat, which, according to Apollodorus, ended
indecisively, was supposed to have been fought in Macedonia, for the Echedorus was a Macedonian river （Hdt. 7.124, Hdt. 7.127）.
Accordingly we must distinguish this contest from another and more famous fight which
Herakles fought with another son of Ares, also called Cycnus, near Pagasae in Thessaly. See Apollod. 2.7.7, with the
note. Apparently Hyginus confused the two combats.

49 The meeting of Herakles with the nymphs, and his struggle with
Nereus, are related also by the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396,
citing as his authority Pherecydes, whom Apollodorus also probably follows. The
transformations of the reluctant sea-god Nereus in his encounter with Herakles are like
those of the reluctant sea-god Proteus in his encounter with Menelaus （Hom. Od. 4.354- 570）, and those of the
reluctant sea-goddess Thetis with her lover Peleus （see below, Apollod. 3.13.5）.

50 As to Herakles and Antaeus, see
Pind. I. 4.52(87)ff., with the Scholiast on Pind.
I. 4.52(87) and 54(92); Diod. 4.17.4; Paus.
9.11.6; Philostratus, Im. ii.21; Quintus Smyrnaeus,
Posthomerica vi.285ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.363ff.;
Scholiast on Plat. Laws, vii, 796a （whose account agrees almost
verbally with that of Apollodorus）; Ovid, Ibis 393-395, with the
Scholia; Hyginus, Fab. 31; Lucan, Pharsal. iv.588-655;
Juvenal iii.89; Statius, Theb. vi.893ff.; Lactantius
Placidus on Statius, Theb. vi.869(894); Scriptores rerum mythicarum
Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 19, 131 (First Vatican Mythographer 55; Second Vatican
Mythographer 164). According to Pindar, the truculent giant used to roof the
temple of his sire Poseidon with the skulls of his victims. The fable of his regaining
strength through contact with his mother Earth is dwelt on by Lucan with his usual
tedious prolixity. It is briefly alluded to by Ovid, Juvenal, and Statius. Antaeus is
said to have reigned in western Morocco, on the
Atlantic coast. Here a hillock was pointed out as his tomb, and the natives believed
that the removal of soil from the hillock would be immediately followed by rain, which
would not cease till the earth was replaced. See Mela iii.106. Sertorius is
said to have excavated the supposed tomb and to have found a skeleton sixty cubits long.
See Plut. Sertorius 9; Strab. 17.3.8.

51 More literally,
“lifted him aloft with hugs.” For this technical term (ἅμμα) applied to a wrestler's hug, see Plut. Fabius
Maximus 23, and Plut. Alc. 2.

52 For Herakles and Busiris, see Diod.
4.18.1, Diod. 4.27.2ff.; Plut. Parallela 38;
Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396; Tzetzes, Scholiast on
Lycophron ii.367ff.; Ov. Met. 9.182ff.;
Ovid, Ars Am. i.647-652; Scholiast on Ovid, Ibis 397 （p.
72, ed. R. Ellis）; Hyginus, Fab. 31, 56; Serv. Verg. A. 8.300 and Georg. iii.5;
Philargyrius on Verg. G. 3.5; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb.
xii.155. Ovid, with his Scholiasts, Hyginus and Philargyrius, like Apollodorus,
allege a nine or eight years' dearth or drought as the cause of the human sacrifices
instituted by Busiris. Their account may be derived from Pherecydes, who is the
authority cited by the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396.
Hyginus, Fab. 56 adds that the seer Phrasius, who advised the sacrifice,
was a brother of Pygmalion. Herodotus, without mentioning Busiris, scouts the story on
the ground that human sacrifices were utterly alien to the spirit of Egyptian religion
（Hdt. 2.45）. Isocrates also discredited
the tradition, in so far as it relates to Herakles, because Herakles was four
generations younger, and Busiris more than two hundred years older, than Perseus. See
Isoc. 11.15. Yet there are grounds for thinking that the
Greek tradition was substantially correct. For Manetho, our highest ancient authority,
definitely affirmed that in the city of Ilithyia it was customary to burn alive
“Typhonian men” and to scatter their ashes by means of winnowing
fans （Plut. Isis et Osiris 73）. These
“Typhonian men” were red-haired, because Typhon, the Egyptian
embodiment of evil, was also redhaired （Plut. Isis et Osiris 30,
33）. But redhaired men would commonly be foreigners, in contrast to the
black-haired natives of Egypt; and it was just
foreigners who, according to Greek tradition, were chosen as victims. Diodorus Siculus
points this out （Diod. 1.88.5） in confirmation of the
Greek tradition, and he tells us that the redhaired men were sacrificed at the grave of
Osiris, though this statement may be an inference from his etymology of the name
Busiris, which he explains to mean “grave of Osiris.” The etymology
is correct, Busiris being a Greek rendering of the Egyptian Asir “place of
Osiris.” See A. Wiedemann, Herodots Zweites Buch
（Leipsic, 1890）, p. 213. Porphyry informs us, on the
authority of Manetho, that the Egyptian custom of sacrificing human beings at the City
of the Sun was suppressed by Amosis （Amasis）, who ordered waxen
effigies to be substituted for the victims. He adds that the human victims used to be
examined just like calves for the sacrifice, and that they were sealed in token of their
fitness for the altar. See Porphyry, De abstinentia iii.35. Sextus
Empiricus even speaks of human sacrifices in Egypt as if they were practised down to his own time, which was about 200
A.D. See Sextus Empiricus, p. 173, ed. Bekker. Seleucus wrote a special
treatise on human sacrifices in Egypt
（Athenaeus iv.72, p. 172 D）. In view of these facts,
the Greek tradition that the sacrifices were offered in order to restore the fertility
of the land or to procure rain after a long drought, and that on one occasion the king
himself was the victim, may be not without significance. For kings or chiefs have been
often sacrificed under similar circumstances （see Apollod. 3.5.1; Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 3rd ed.
ii.97ff.; The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings,
i.344ff., 352ff.）; and in ancient Egypt the rulers are definitely said to have been held responsible for the
failure of the crops （Ammianus Marcellinus xxviii.5.14）;
hence it would not be surprising if in extreme cases they were put to death. Busiris was
the theme of a Satyric play by Euripides. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp.
452ff.

53 The Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396 calls
him Iphidamas, and adds “the herald Chalbes and the attendants” to
the list of those slain by Herakles.

54 Thermydra is the form of the name
given by Stephanus Byzantius, s.v.. In his account of this incident Tzetzes
calls the harbour Thermydron （Tzetzes. Chiliades ii.385）.
Lindus was one of the chief cities of
Rhodes.

55 Compare
Conon 11; Philostratus, Im. ii.24; Tzetzes, Chiliades
ii.385ff.; Lactantius, Divin. Inst. i.21. According to all these
writers except Tzetzes （who clearly follows Apollodorus）, Herakles's
victim in this affair was not a waggoner, but a ploughman engaged in the act of
ploughing; Philostratus names him Thiodamus, and adds: “Hence a ploughing ox
is sacrificed to Herakles and they begin the sacrifice with curses such as, I suppose,
the husbandman then made use of; and Herakles is pleased and blesses the Lindians in
return for their curses.” According to Lactantius, it was a pair of oxen that
was sacrificed, and the altar at which the sacrifice took place bore the name of
bouzygos, that is, “yoke of oxen.”
Hence it seems probable that the sacrifice which the story purported to explain was
offered at the time of ploughing in order to ensure a blessing on the ploughman's
labours. This is confirmed by the ritual of the sacred ploughing observed at Eleusis, where members of the old priestly family of
the Bouzygai or Ox-yokers uttered many curses as they guided the plough down the furrows
of the Rarian Plain. See Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. Βουζυγία, p. 206, lines 47ff.; Anecdota Graeca, ed.
Bekker, i.221; Hesychius, s.v. Βουζύγης; Paroemiographi Graeci, ed. Leutsch
and Schneidewin, i. p. 388; Scholiast on Soph. Ant. 255;
Plut. Praecepta Conjugalia 42. Compare J. Toepffer, Attische
Genealogie （Berlin, 1889）, rr. 136ff.;
Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i.108ff. The Greeks
seem to have deemed curses of special efficacy to promote the fertility of the ground;
for we are told that when a Greek sowed cummin he was expected to utter imprecations or
the corn would not turn out well. See Theophrastus, Historia plantarum vii.3.3,
ix.8.8; Plut. Quaest. Conviv. vii.2.3; Pliny, Nat. Hist.
xix.120. Roman writers mention a like custom observed by the sowers of rue and
basil. See Palladius, De re rustica, iv.9; Pliny, Nat. Hist.
xix.120. As to the beneficent effect of curses, when properly directed, see
further The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings,
i.278ff.

56 Compare Tzetzes, Chiliades
ii.369ff., who as usual follows Apollodorus. According to Diod.
4.27.3, after Herakles had slain Busiris, he ascended the Nile to Ethiopia and there slew Emathion, king of Ethiopia.

57 As to
Herakles and Prometheus, see Diod. 4.15.2; Paus.
5.11.6; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.370ff.; Scholiast on Ap.
Rhod., Argon. ii.1248, iv.1396; Hyginus, Ast. ii.15;
Hyginus, Fab. 31, 54, and 144; Serv. Verg. Ecl.
6.42. The Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.1248 agrees with
Apollodorus as to the parentage of the eagle which preyed on Prometheus, and he cites as
his authority Pherecydes; hence we may surmise that Apollodorus is following the same
author in the present passage. The time during which Prometheus suffered on the
Caucasus was said by Aeschylus to be thirty
thousand years （Hyginus, Ast. ii.15）; but Hyginus, though
he reports this in one passage, elsewhere reduces the term of suffering to thirty years
（Hyginus, Fab. 54, 144）.

58 The reference seems to be to the
crown of olive which Herakles brought from the land of the Hyperboreans and instituted
as the badge of victory in the Olympic games. See Pind. O.
3.11(20)ff.; Paus. 5.7.7. The ancients had a
curious notion that the custom of wearing crowns or garlands on the head and rings on
the fingers was a memorial of the shackles once worn for their sake by their great
benefactor Prometheus among the rocks and snows of the Caucasus. In order that the will of Zeus, who had sworn never to release
Prometheus, might not be frustrated by the entire liberation of his prisoner from his
chains, Prometheus on obtaining his freedom was ordered to wear on his finger a ring
made out of his iron fetters and of the rock to which he had been chained; hence, in
memory of their saviour's sufferings, men have worn rings ever since. The practice of
wearing crowns or garlands was explained by some people in the same way. See
Hyginus, Ast. ii.15; Serv. Verg. Ecl.
6.42; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxvii.2; Isidore, Orig.
xix.32.1. According to one version of the legend, the crown which the sufferer on
regaining his liberty was doomed to wear was a crown of willow; and the Carians, who
used to crown their brows with branches of willow, explained that they did so in
imitation of Prometheus. See Athenaeus xv.11-13, pp. 671-673 EB. In the
present passage of Apollodorus, if the text is correct, Herakles, as the deliverer of
Prometheus, is obliged to bind himself vicariously for the prisoner whom he has
released; and he chooses to do so with his favourite olive. Similarly he has to find a
substitute to die instead of Prometheus, and he discovers the substitute in Chiron. As
to the substitution of Chiron for Prometheus, see Apollod.
2.5.4. It is remarkable that, though Prometheus was supposed to have attained
to immortality and to be the great benefactor, and even the creator, of mankind, he
appears not to have been worshipped by the Greeks; Lucian says that nowhere were temples
of Prometheus to be seen （Lucian, Prometheus 14）.

59 The passage in angular
brackets is wanting in the manuscripts of Apollodorus, but is restored from the
Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396, who quotes as his authority
Pherecydes, the writer here seemingly followed by Apollodorus. See the Critical Note.
The story of the contest of wits between Herakles and Atlas is represented in one of the
extant metopes of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, which were seen and described by Paus.
5.10.9. See Frazer, note on Pausanias （vol. iii. pp.
524ff.）.

61 As to the initiation of Herakles at Eleusis, compare Diod. 4.25.1;
Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.394. According to Diodorus, the rites were
performed on this occasion by Musaeus, son of Orpheus. Elsewhere
（Tzetzes, Chiliades iv.14.3） the same writer says that
Demeter instituted the lesser Eleusinian mysteries in honour of Herakles for the purpose
of purifying him after his slaughter of the centaurs. The statement that Pylius acted as
adoptive father to Herakles at his initiation is repeated by Plut. Thes. 33, who mentions that before Castor and Pollux were initiated at
Athens they were in like manner adopted by
Aphidnus. Herodotus says （Hdt. 8.65） that
any Greek who pleased might be initiated at Eleusis. The initiation of Herakles is represented in ancient reliefs. See
A. B. Cook, Zeus, i.425ff.

62 Compare Eur. Herc. 23ff.; Paus.
3.25.5; Seneca, Herakles Furens 807ff. Sophocles seems to have
written a Satyric drama on the descent of Herakles into the infernal regions at
Taenarum. See The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol.
i. pp. 167ff. According to another account, Herakles descended, not at Taenarum
but at the Acherusian Chersonese, near Heraclea
Pontica on the Black Sea. The marks of the descent were there pointed out to
a great depth. See Xen. Ana. 6.2.2.

63 So Bacch.
5.71ff., ed. Jebb represents Herakles in Hades drawing his bow against the
ghost of Meleager in shining armour, who reminds the hero that there is nothing to fear
from the souls of the dead; so, too, Verg. A. 6.290ff.
describes Aeneas in Hades drawing his sword on the Gorgons and Harpies, till the Sibyl
tells him that they are mere flitting empty shades. Apollodorus more correctly speaks of
the ghost of only one Gorgon （Medusa）, because of the three Gorgons
she alone was mortal. See Apollod. 2.4.2. Compare Hom. Od. 11.634ff.

64 On Theseus and
Pirithous in hell, see Apollod. E.1.23ff.; Hom. Od. 1.631; Eur. Herc.
619; Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.101ff., with the Scholiast on 101;
Diod. 4.26.1, Diod. 4.63.4ff.; Paus.
1.17.4; Paus. 9.31.5; Paus. 10.29.9; Apostolius, Cent. iii.36; Suidas, s.v.
λίσποι;Scholiast on Aristoph. Kn.
1368; Verg. A. 6.392ff., 617ff.; Hor. Carm. 3.4.79ff., iv.7.27ff.; Hyginus, Fab.
79; Aulus Gellius x.16.13; Serv. Verg. A.
6.617; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 18 (First
Vatican Mythographer 48). The general opinion seems to have been that Herakles
rescued Theseus, but that he could not save Pirithous. Others, however, alleged that he
brought up both from the dead （Hyginus, Fab. 79）; others
again affirmed that he brought up neither （Diod. 4.63.5）.
A dull rationalistic version of the romantic story converted Hades into a king of the
Molossians or Thesprotians, named Aidoneus, who had a wife Persephone, a daughter
Cora, and a dog Cerberus, which he set to
worry his daughter's suitors, promising to give her in marriage to him who could master
the ferocious animal. Discovering that Theseus and Pirithous were come not to woo but to
steal his daughter, he arrested them. The dog made short work of Pirithous, but Theseus
was kept in durance till the king consented to release him at the intercession of
Herakles. See Plut. Thes. 31.4-35.1ff.; Ael.,
Var. Hist. iv.5; Paus. 1.17.4, Paus. 1.18.4, Paus. 2.22.6,
Paus. 3.18.5; Tzetzes, Chiliades
ii.406ff.

Apollodorus. Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Includes Frazer's notes.

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